Great expectations

Editor’s note: Please welcome to the Project Spurs’ writing staff Nick Kapsis. Nick was part of the Reigning Black website and will be bringing his unique brand of insightful posts on the San Antonio Spurs. He is excited to be joining the team as we are for adding him to the Project Spurs family. Enjoy his debut post.

An expectation is a funny thing.

It skews and it alters. It makes good not good enough often leaving what’s been done only the threshold from which to begin doing more. It sets a standard by which to be judged. Ultimate success only comes when a thirst has been quenched and a predetermined goal’s been met.

For an NBA team with championship aspirations, meeting expectation for an offseason only occurs when the pieces are believed to be in place and the deficiencies have seemingly been addressed.

Expectation has a funny way of turning into a four-letter word.

Recently Spurs.com’s Ben Hunt had a chance to sit down with San Antonio Spurs’ general manager RC Buford to find out just how well things had gone for the Spurs after ending the 2009-10 campaign. Was the Spurs’ 2010 offseason a success — had the goals and needs of this Spurs team been met this past summer?

“We wanted to do what we could to keep together a group that had a lot of transition last year and to have a great deal of internal improvement, Buford said. “We wanted to add a big next to Tim Duncan, a wing defender and improve our shooting.”

Nine players return, two-fifths of their starting lineup won’t be completely new to the roster, and the overall health of the team going into camp is as well as can be expected — the Big 3 is rested with no injuries, fatigue or surgeries to overcome, nothing to hamper a team trying to find chemistry and cohesion from day one. A better place than a year ago?

One down, three to go.

It’s been seven years since David Robinson left the stage a champion. Seven years have passed and the Spurs have yet to be able to find an adequate replacement. There was a time Rasho Nesterovic and Nazr Mohammed were deemed to be not-good-enough. Fabricio Oberto and even Robert Horry were only good enough until they got-it-done. The Spurs have been waiting, searching for Tim Duncan’s next real sidekick. But quality big men just don’t grow on trees and sometimes you’re too far in the forest to see a Luis Scola.

After years of waiting, the Spurs and the NBA will finally see Tiago Splitter makes his way to the league. No more draft histrionics or contract buyouts, Tiago Splitter — the Spanish League’s regular season MVP, Finals MVP and reigning ACB champion with Caja Laboral Vitoria — is officially a Spur.